


3AM

by esanabridges



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Enemies With Benefits, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:20:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24889798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esanabridges/pseuds/esanabridges
Summary: It happens because it's 3AM.
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Comments: 1
Kudos: 72





	3AM

It happens because it's 3AM, and because all the energy that had been in his bones has been let out with his release, and there is just a warm weariness left, and all he wants to do is sleep, an impossible dream with Kaiba's voice in the entryway echoing back to him as he alternates between barking at his phone and tapping furiously at the screen. It happens because he glances at the clock and knows that the buses aren't running anymore, not that Kaiba would ever deign to take public transportation, knows that even taxis aren't likely to show up in his neighborhood at that time, knows that Kaiba won't take 'no' for an answer, which means the talking is going to go on for an unacceptable amount of time and cut into his precious little rest time.

He swings himself out of bed, a sheet wrapped draped loosely over his otherwise bare shoulders, and makes his way open to the partially open bedroom door. Through the crack, he can see Kaiba's back, the lines of muscle tensed in frustration. He nudges the wood with his foot, and the door creaks open as he leans his head against the frame.

"Roland finally drop your ass?"

His guest spares the briefest of glares over his shoulder. "Roland's on paternity leave. The substitute has their phone turned off."

"At three in the morning?" Joey asks in mock shock. "Damn, Kaiba, how'd someone like that get through all that screening ya do?"

Kaiba mutters something that Joey suspects it unflattering to both the driver in question and him in kind and returns to tapping at his phone.

Joey watches him for a moment, and then it happens.

"Just stay here."

Kaiba stops mid-tap and looks over his shoulder again incredulously, and Joey is left wondering if a wire got crossed somewhere between his brain and his mouth. "Excuse me?"

It is the appropriate reaction, certainly far more appropriate than the words that had prompted said reaction, because for as long as this had been happening (was it eight months at this point? Nine? Surely, it hadn't been a year yet, but Joey couldn't be quite sure), they never slept together after they had _slept_ together. Sometimes, it wasn't an issue, if the hookups happened during their off times at a tournament or a work break or just in the middle of the day, when transportation was readily available. Even when it wasn't, Kaiba's trusty bodyguard/valet/butler/whatever other titles Joey was certain Roland had, was always there to either ferry his master home or Joey away, and so neither of them ever has to see the other one in any light other than a sexual one.

A part of him wants to walk back the statement, but Kaiba's eyes are withering, but also tired, and Joey knows that he hasn't slept in at least 24 hours, probably more, which can't be healthy for anyone, not even Kaiba, and besides, walking back would mean admitting that he might have been wrong, and he is never wrong when it came to Kaiba, not from the first insult he ever lobbed to the last place he kissed.

"Stop harassing some poor guy just 'cause he wants to get some sleep cause ya probably call him in way too early, and just stay here, ya fucking crybaby." Joey screws up his face in what was possibly the worst imitation of Kaiba that he had ever done, but again, it is three in the morning. "'Oh no, my butler isn't picking up my calls, and now I'm going to have to sleep on sheets that were bought on sale.'" He lets his face relax and braces for the oncoming thunder.

Instead, Kaiba's nose wrinkles, and he says, "You bought your sheets on sale?" It's scornful and rude and speaks to exactly what he thinks of that action, but it is perhaps a quarter as scornful and rude as Kaiba normally is, so Joey knows that he's exhausted.

"Yeah, that's right. We don't all shit money, ya know." He turns and takes a few steps towards his bed before glancing over his shoulder. "Ya coming or what?"

His heart is thumping in his chest as he keeps walking forward, and he isn't quite sure what he actually wants Kaiba to do. It's just sleeping in the same bed, and considering what else they've done in that bed, it should really be nothing at all, but it doesn't feel like nothing. Joey knows some things about himself, like the fact that he likes Kaiba's face, likes the way it scrunches up when he's really gotten under his skin, likes the way it opens when he's in the throes of pleasure, likes the smirk he gets right before he really smacks someone down in a duel, especially when it isn't him. He's not sure he's ready to figure out if he likes his face when it's doing something as vulnerable as sleep.

Teeth sink themselves into the skin between his shoulder and neck, and Joey hisses in surprise as cold hands slip themselves under the bedsheet to smooth themselves against his chest. He turns in time to catch flint and steel and possibly the smallest touch of hesitation in Kaiba's cold, blue eyes as he says, "You know, if you'd wanted another round, you could have just asked, Wheeler. I'm feeling fairly charitable today."

He feels a prick of irritation spark within him, and it takes him a minute to realize what Kaiba is doing, how he's protecting himself with those words. So much easier to accept an invitation to sleep over if you refuse to acknowledge it like that, if you treat it as something else entirely, something not foreign, something that has already been negotiated and has boundaries that you need, because past them is something entirely uncertain and frightening because of that.

Joey debates for a moment whether or not he wants to call Kaiba out on his bullshit, but there it is again, the whole 3AM thing, and he really does want to sleep, and if playing along with this will bring him to it sooner, then so be it.

So he turns and falls silently into a biting kiss with Kaiba, lets him show his dominance and aggression, until the time, which he knows is affecting Kaiba even more than it is him, starts to take its effect, and the kisses become almost soft, and Joey lets it go on for a little too long after that, because he finds he likes it a little too much, the brush of lips and noses in a manner one might almost call tender. He thinks Kaiba might like it, too, because he doesn't pull away, at least not until he does, and even then, he doesn't really. He's still close enough for Joey to see the flare of his nostrils as he catches his breath, eyes blinking large, and in the sole light from the entryway, Joey finds that he looks younger somehow, like a lost child rather than an egomaniac CEO with enough power to ruin any number of lives.

"Come on," Joey says instead of examining the something blooming in the center of his chest. He takes Kaiba's hand - another first for the night, hand-holding is for people who like each other, not people who use each other's bodies to find some ecstasy because that was the only way they could exist in the same space without trying to kill each other (what if it wasn't the only way?) - and leads him to the bed, where he undresses Kaiba with sleepy hands that can't help but be gentle. Kaiba doesn't help, just shrugs his shoulders and hips at the right times to shed his clothes back to the floor where they had been so recently.

The task done, he pulls him down under the sheets, resists when Kaiba tries to get on top of him, instead pulling him so the other man's back is nestled against his chest. He tucks his head atop Kaiba's shoulder, feels warm and safe and quickly pushes that away to examine at some other time, and then, because he can feel Kaiba twitching, he reaches down and wraps his hand around Kaiba.

"I'll do ya first," he mumbles into Kaiba's pale skin. "Then ya can do me." He bites down for good measure, in the way he knows Kaiba likes, and then licks the spot, suckling it gently, which makes his companion stiffen again.

He begins with long languid pulls as he continues his ministrations to Kaiba's neck, going slow and mild, because regardless of what Kaiba was trying to convince himself was happening here or what he had said, he had no intentions of doing anything further than fall asleep. He kept going, wondering idly at how easily Kaiba molded to him, how strangely right it felt to be folded like this.

Gradually, he feels Kaiba's body relax, soften, his breath going long and deep, and Joey carefully lets go, resting his hand over the other man's chest and closing his own eyes.

He'd finish the task in the morning.


End file.
